Ignoring Poverty in the U.S.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Education

Petition to Reform Teach for America

Challenging Ruby Payne's Framework

“Arts of the Possible,” Adrienne Rich (2001)

Universal public education has two possible—and contradictory—missions. One is the development of a literate, articulate, and well-informed citizenry so that the democratic process can continue to evolve and the promise of radical equality can be brought closer to realization.The other is the perpetuation of a class system dividing an elite, nominally “gifted” few, tracked from an early age, from a very large underclass essentially to be written off as alienated from language and science, from poetry and politics, from history and hope—toward low-wage temporary jobs.The second is the direction our society has taken. The results are devastating in terms of the betrayal of a generation of youth.The loss to the whole of society is incalculable. (p. 162)